Thursday, September 3, 2009

Weekend arts picks: Sept. 3-7

Andrew Fletcher, Dave Gahan and Martin Gore of Depeche Mode.

Music: Dave Gahan, Martin Gore and Andrew Fletcher have been making music together for nearly 30 years as Depeche Mode, and currently the English electronica band (Personal Jesus, People Are People) is in the middle of a very successful tour to support its newest album, Sounds of the Universe. The band plays Tampa on Friday and then the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise on Saturday, its last U.S. stop before resuming in Mexico in October. While the band isn't on the cutting edge of musical fashion as it was in the 1980s, a growing consensus of critical opinion points to Depeche Mode as one of the most influential bands of its time. 8 pm. Tickets $36.75-$86.75. Call Ticketmaster at 954-523-3309 or visit www.bankatlanticcenter.com. -- G. Stepanich

Nour Zoubi and Mohamed Bakri in Laila's Birthday.

Film: Despite the fact that 7-year-old Laila is having a birthday, it is an ordinary day in Ramallah on the Israel-occupied West Bank, as seen from the comings and goings inside the taxi of the girl’s father, an out-of-work judge reduced to driving a cab. The film, Laila’s Birthday, by Palestinian director Rashid Masharawi, makes its political points through a series of brief vignettes, as the taxi becomes a microcosm for the chaos of this precarious Middle East life. Opening Friday at Lake Worth’s Emerging Cinemas, 709 Lake Ave. Call (561) 296-9382 for show times. -- H. Erstein

Paul Tei, Amy Elane Anderson and Gregg Weiner in Speed-the-Plow.

Theater: Most professional companies are on hiatus at this time of year, but GableStage in Coral Gables probably doesn’t know the meaning of the word. It continues, through Sept. 13, with a searing production of David Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow, a morality tale that unspools inside the amoral world of Hollywood, as a newly promoted head of production (Burn Notice’s Paul Tei) has to chose between a producer (Gregg Weiner) pushing a sure-thing piece of commercial junk and his temp secretary (newcomer Amy Elane Anderson) who argues for him to make a movie with some substance. Call (305) 445-1119 for tickets. -- H. Erstein

Peace Menorah, by Joyce Brown.

In Lake Worth, the Clay, Glass, Metal, Stone Cooperative Gallery of more than 20 artists is featuring Joyce Brown, Victoria Rose Martin, and Sally Siegel at its opening Friday from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., with a wine-and-cheese reception sponsored by wine broker and artist Barbara Eden and building owners Jay and Cathy Bernhardt. Brown, the founder of the co-op gallery and a peace and social-justice advocate, creates playful groups of people in her imaginative sculptures. Martin, a professor of art at Palm Beach Community College, uses “symbols such as monocles, hats, and wings to express the duality between who we really are and how people want to see us.” Her work, in ceramic and two-dimensional paintings, features fascinating human-animal hybrids. And Siegel is an experienced functional potter who creates sushi dishes and bowls. She also makes iridescent jewelry from fused glass. The gallery is located at 605 Lake Ave. in downtown Lake Worth. For more information, call (561) 588-8344. -- K. Deits